The Friday Tip

A little vegan sweetness

| mollyeleen

Hello strangers! Well actually I have been the stranger lately.  Ever get into one of those “funks.” You have too much to do and no motivation what so ever to do anything. That was my last week, luckily for me I snapped out of it relatively quickly. Of course the week of not getting much done means that this week I have been crazy busy trying to catch up. The to do list is written and way to long for my own good. Oh well, that’s what I get for feeling blah.

After a fun morning working at pre-school, let me tell you 30 kiddos are loud, really loud, playing with that many kiddos sure does bring out the kiddo in me.  What is better than playing all morning, a special treat for a friday afternoon…we made cookies. Vegan cookies… Vegan peanut butter chocolate chip cookies. Boy howdy are they delicious.  I will even go as far to say they are good for you, as far as cookies go that is.

Of course I am going to share, these are super simple:

recipecard

For the oatmeal flour, I use old fashioned oats and whirl it in the food processor.

IMG_6037Mix, mix, mix

cookies

IMG_6047Someone is sneaking the chocolate chips, her very most favorite thing. “Mommy your the best” when chocolate comes into our home, which is NOT very often.

IMG_6054

Waiting for the oven….this dough will be thick, so don’t freak out about that. Seems thicker to me than “normal” peanut butter cookies.

IMG_6058

All done, and yum.  Now I am not one with a major sweet tooth. These cookies are sweet to me, you might want to taste the dough (hey you can! they are vegan!) to see if you want to add extra sugar. For us, they are perfect.

IMG_6050A Friday Tip too, in our house, kiddo eats a bunch of apple sauce, especially the ones that come in the little cups. Did you know those little cups hold exactly a half a cup?  I have a small collection of them, we use them for painting and freezing foods. So with the left over can of pumpkin, I fill up those cups, pop them in a zippy bag and freeze. Next time I need pumpkin, it’s already measured out…smart right.

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Someone said she didn’t sneak an extra cookie, I let her get away with it this time, she has been so awesome lately. Would love to know if you try to make these cookies, they are quite yummy.signature

day 26: the friday tip~ old school transfers

| mollyeleen

It’s Friday, which used to make me jump with joy, but now it’s just another day…sad huh? Anyway, today I made a sign/banner for my booth and I am going to share with you what I did.

For my banner, I decided to use brown craft paper or mailing paper, I like the color, it’s easy to use and it’s cheap. You can use this method on paper, wood, or canvas, probably other things too, but this is what I have done in the past to very good outcomes.  Also, I am sure there are better ways, one is transfer paper, but I don’t like it.  The last time I used it, when I started painting it turned into a huge smeared mess.

notice little hand wanting to help mommy

What you will need:

  • roll of brown craft paper
  • scissors
  • pencil
  • ruler
  • tape
  • paint
  • paint brushes
  • plate
  • words printed out on computer

(If you have a kiddo like mine, set them up with paints and crafting paper too.  She likes to “work” with me and “help out.”  This makes life much easier).

Step One: For what ever your message is, print out the words using your computer in a font and size that will fit your project.

Step Two: Measure how long you want your banner to be out of the crafting paper.  I will be using this in my booth, so my banner is 8 feet long.

Step Three: Draw a horizontal line along the bottom of all the words.  This will help you keep the words straight when lining them up on your banner.  Make sure all the lines are the same distance from the word bottom (i.e. I left 1/4″ between word and line).

Step Four: Cut around the words, no need to be neat here just helps to have less paper

Step Five: Make the center of your banner and line up your words and mark this center also.  For me, Vintage Princess by M.E. measured 34″ so the center mark is 17″, which lands in the middle-ish of “Princess.”

Step Six: Old school transfer time- with a pencil, scribble on the backside of your words.  You should be able to see the words through the paper to know where to scribble.

Step Seven: Gently lay your “center” word aligned with the center of the banner into place, measure from top to the line you drew under the word, this is your reference for all other words.  Make sure the word is straight, and gently tape it down at the top.

Step Eight: Trace the outlines of all the letters, making sure to push hard with the pencil.  Peak to make sure it is working.  Repeat using your reference measurement for all the words.

Step Nine: Now that all the words are in place, it’s time to paint.  I seem to like to make things not as easy as they should be, so I mixed three colors of paint to get the right hue.  When painting, slow and steady wins the race, so patience!

Step Ten: When the paint is dry, mark the backside of your plate, using tape and pencil, the centerlines, (if your plate was a clock, mark 3 and 9).

Step Eleven: Mark down from the bottom of your banner where you would like the scallop to start (the point where two scallops meet), set plate onto mark, measure other side to make sure it’s straight, trace around half of plate.  Repeat by moving plate to left or right, measuring the one side that hasn’t been measured.

Step Twelve: Cut out and you are done!

 

Kiddo’s painting, it’s Mommy and Kennedy on the way to a wedding in a carriage with not enough jewels

You should click here and ready all 31 days and you should click over there on the right and follow my blog!

 

 

day 5: The Friday Tip

| mollyeleen

I have decided that Friday’s are going to be tip day.  It might be a tip about sewing, crafting, designing, thrifting, breathing, who knows it will all depend on the day, week, month.  Today it’s going to be a sewing tip.

For those of you that do sew, this might not be all that mind bending, but it sure has streamlined my sewing of parallel lines.  FREEZER PAPER!  Using freezer paper might take a bit longer than the washable pen and ruler method, but for me, it’s worth the few extra minutes.  Why, because I think the lines come out straighter and the paper stabilizes the fabric, overall, the outcome is clean, straight and perfect.

What you will need and steps to perfectly sewn parallel lines:

Needs:

  • Freezer Paper, I use “Reynolds Freezer Paper” it comes in a blue box and can be found almost anywhere, with the zippy bags & foil.
  • Ruler & pencil
  • Rotary cutter or scissors
  • An Iron
  • Sewing Machine
  • Project that needs horizontal lines, the project here are the crayon portfolios I make for kiddos to take crayons and color books along with them where ever they go.

Step 1: Draw out the width of strips you will need onto the paper side of the freezer paper; here I am sewing the parallel lines 1 inch apart, so my strips of freezer paper are 1 inch. (if you are using a rotary cutter, you could skip this step)

Step 2:  Cut out the strips.  If you use scissors, cut along the lines, if you use a rotary cutter use your clear ruler, align edge with the one-inch line and cut.  Cut until you have enough strips for your project.

freezer paper ironed into place

Step 3: With your iron on hot, align the freezer paper strip onto your project, waxy side down, and press into place.  The paper will stay put until you decided to remove it, and it will not leave any kind of residue.

stitching along freezer paper (notice fabric change)

Step 4: Sew along both edges of the paper with your machine.

sewing is done, time to remove the paper

Step 5: Remove freezer paper.

perfect!

Ta-da! Perfect straight, parallel lines

Let me know if you decide to try it.

To read all 31 days of preparing for your first craft show, click here

31 days: Preparing for my first craft show

| mollyeleen

I have wonderful friends, and two of them are also starting their adventures in blogging.  Magazine Mom & Beautiful Objects are both taking on the challenge by The Nester, 31 days of blogs in October.  I thought why not, I could do that too.

After reading the challenge I immediately knew what my blogging theme would be.  I am working on getting ready for my first craft show, it’s in 8 weeks. So I am going to blog about all the craziness of preparing of my first craft show while being a mom, wife, June Clever want-to-be, school board member, and free-lance designer. (why not add one more thing into my to do list)

Follow me along on my adventures of sewing, cutting, creating, figuring out the business end, mishaps, melt downs, and pure stress of getting ready for a craft show.  It will be interesting!

Links to all “31 day” posts: